Reclamation
by Dragon Star Empress
Summary: Sequel to Faded Memories. Barely alive after the battle in China, Lockdown is forced to rely on the help of a human woman to survive and everything he thought he knew or believed will be turned upside down
1. Chapter 1

"No," Joy said as she answered her phone.

"I haven't even asked you anything yet," her father, Ron said.

"Doesn't matter, if you're calling me the day after summer break starts you probably want me to do something with you and the answer is no. Unless you were wanting to go hunting with me," Joy replied as she set her bow by the front door.

"Come on honey, after all the stress the other day, couldn't we just get together for a little while? I could really use your help," Ron said.

"You need my help?" Joy asked.

"Yeah, everyone else from the lab is in China or recovering from injuries. I'm on my own, all but one of our trucks were damaged, I need you to bring the big horse trailer and help me," he told her.

"This is about the aliens, isn't it?" Joy asked.

"Yes, some of the smaller ships crashed in the city and Mr. Joyce wants the tech collected before anyone else can get their hands on it," he explained.

"Dad, you know how I feel about this. I am not going to go help you drag in alien bodies so you can dissect them and melt them down," Joy told him.

"They're just machines, built by aliens of course, but the robots aren't alive. We've been able to reproduce the tech-"

"Dad," Joy cut in, an edge of anger working its way into her voice.

"Okay, so far all I've heard reports of are downed ships, none of the actual robots. If we run into any we'll just leave them for someone else to get later."

"Dad, I really don't-"

"The rescue teams have been spread thin, they've done sweeps of the areas, but there's a good chance that if anyone was buried under the wreckage they may not have been found. If I run into anyone who was injured and hasn't been found by the rescue teams, having someone with medical training out there with me could mean the difference between life and death," he pointed out.

Joy let out a frustrated sigh, "I hate you,"

"I love you too honey. How soon can you be here?" Ron asked.

"About an hour if traffic is good."

After saying goodbye Joy grabbed her backpack, dumped out her hunting supplies, put her first aid kit back in then added a better stocked first aid kit and a few other supplies. After tossing her bag into her truck and hooking up the trailer she left, all the while cursing her inability to turn her back on anyone who might be hurt and her father for using that against her.

When she drove into Chicago she couldn't stop her mind from wandering back to when the Decepticons had taken the city. She had been in the city, meeting with her grandmother's attorney when the Decepticons had first been spotted in the city. She had made it to one of the bridges leading out of the city, but the bridge was raised before she could get out, the cars on the bridge, including hers had crashed into a pile at the base of the raised bridge. She had had a split second to wonder why her airbag hadn't opened yet before her head smashed into the steering wheel. She had woken up sometime the next day with a pounding headache, still in her car which was nearly vertical, with the front bumper on the ground. She seemed to have gotten lucky as several cars that she could see had been crushed or burned. She nearly called out for help when she saw two people run by and dive into an overturned car, but then she realized she could hear voices that didn't sound quite human and remained silent.

She braced herself and had gotten her belt off then lowered herself down so the foot space under the dash hid her better. She watched as one of the robots realized the others were going to kill them, the fear and emotion in his voice had shaken her. Her father was a robotics engineer, he had created amazing robots all her life and when the existence of these robotic beings had been revealed she had thought the same thing her father had. They were just robots created by some advanced alien race, maybe by two alien races which would explain the two different groups of robots fighting. Or maybe, like in so many films the machines had taken over, but were still just machines built by someone else, they couldn't truly be sentient. Sure she had heard some people say the robots were alive and sentient, but she had seen some of her father's artificial intelligence robots that, with a few more years in development would probably be able to convince a lot of people they were alive. As she watched the one being shot and killed by another and then the way the yellow one looked at the two humans hidden in the car, with such sadness and hopelessness, she knew they weren't just advanced robots, they were alive and sentient.

After the battle had been won she had been horrified to find out that the company her father worked for was taking the bodies of the dead robots to study them. Her father though was still convinced they were nothing more than machines and whatever she had seen to make her think otherwise was just a result of her head injury.

Joy pulled herself from her memories as she arrived at the KSI building and couldn't help smiling at the large hole through the front of the building, "Too bad they didn't just force everyone out and burn it to the ground," she said to her self before pulling out her cell phone and calling to let her father know she was there.

A little while later Joy was helping Ron hook up a mangled part of a ship to a forklift, "Okay, I'll get this on the truck, you gather the small pieces and see if you can figure out where the rest of it ended up," Ron told her.

"Alright," she agreed then cringed, fighting back a feeling of nausea when the forklift lifted the piece of wreckage and a severed metal hand fell out of it, pinned in a twisted piece of metal.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked as he stopped the forklift and walked over to her.

"I can handle gaping wounds and blood, but not severed limbs," Joy replied, "How am I supposed to be a doctor if I feel sick just looking at a severed limb?"

"I'm sure you'll do fine, just something that may take a while to get use to seeing, you'll be a great doctor," Ron told her, "Why don't' you head that way, it looks like there might be another ship over there?" he said pointing off towards an overpass.

"Okay," Joy replied.

She had followed the trail through under the overpass, across a street and down a dead-end ally when she spotted something strange laying at the end of the ally near the remains of a damaged ship. At first she thought it was a person caught in the wreckage since she could see flesh that seemed to be twisted through the metal. She quickly rushed forward, bracing herself to find a mangled dead body, but also preparing herself to spring into action if the person was still alive.

What she found was something she never could have been prepared for. A chest covered in flesh heaved in labored breaths, but the back, legs and head of the dog like creature was metal. She hesitantly reached out and touched it, but it didn't wake up or move, so she started looking over it's wounds. A deep gash ran across it's chest with a large piece of twisted metal stuck into it, but as she pulled out the metal and inspected the wound it didn't look like it had penetrated deep enough to effect any internal organs, assuming the thing had normal organs. Joy pulled out her stitching supplies, cleaned the wound and began stitching it, the creature started to make pained whimpers, but remained still. As she worked she noticed several other places on the flesh that were scarred, some of them with slight lines across them indicating this creature had been stitched up many times before. As the creature whimpered again she looked up and realized it's glowing red eyes were open and it was watching her.

"It's alright, I'm just trying to help you, please don't hurt me," she said trying to keep her voice as calm and reassuring as possible.

The creature continued to watch her, but it made no attempt to move so she continued until she had finished stitching the wound and bandaged it. When she finished and had packed her supplies up she noticed that the creature was looking behind her. She slowly turned around and found two more of the dog like creatures standing behind her with another one laying behind them. As soon as she turned around one of the creatures darted passed her to the inured one she had been taking care of. It sniffed at the bandaged wound then grabbed Joy's arm, somehow managing to do it gently enough that it only felt like light pinpricks from it's sharp teeth as it then pulled her towards the other two. When she got closer she realized there were actually three, the healthy looking one, one that was laying down but had it's head up and a third one that was laying behind the other and appeared to be dead with a large hole through it's chest and back.

The one that was laying down looked like one of it's back legs wasn't working as it struggled to stand. Looking at the two that were standing and the odd angle of the other's leg, she had a feeling it's leg was dislocated. At least that's what it looked like, the metal around the top of the hip of the inured leg was bent up at an odd angle and the top of the leg was pushed up higher than the hip when the creature tried to stand.

"Okay, this is going to be fun," Joy said trying to figure out what to do, "I don't suppose you understand English do you?" she asked and wasn't surprised when they just cocked their heads at her in confusion, "That's what I was afraid of, you look like dogs, you act like dogs, you're probably about as intelligent as dogs. Why couldn't I have run into some of the sentient robots? Well this is going to hurt, please don't kill me."

After getting the injured creature over near a wall and getting it to lay down she braced one foot on the wall then grabbed the dog's leg, pushed off the wall with her foot and pulled the leg as hard as she could. The dog let out a yelp as the leg popped back into place. The other two dogs charged at Joy when the other yelped, one seemed to check on the injured dog while the other stood growling menacingly at Joy. After a second the injured one stood up, it still limped, but was able to walk much better than it had before. It then walked over to her and nuzzled it's head against her side affectionately and the other two relaxed.

Joy smiled, "You're welcome," she said petting the soft strip of fur that ran down it's back.

It then pushed her over towards where the other two had moved next to the fifth dog. One of the dogs pushed it's head against the fifth's head and whined. Joy knelt next to it to check, just to be sure, but found as she had suspected that there was no sign of life.

Looking up apologetically at the dogs she said, "I'm sorry, he's dead, there's nothing I can do," then she stepped away.

The dogs sniffed and nuzzled at the dead one letting out sad whimpers before finally moving to the back of the ally with the other injured one.

Joy walked to the back of the ally and pet each of the dogs for a moment then said, "Stay here, I guess I'll have to sneak you home with me. I sure can't leave you here, if anyone else finds you they'd probably kill you or lock you up in some lab."

Joy returned a few minutes later with the horse trailer, shifted the ship scraps she'd already gathered towards the doors then walked into the ally to see if she could convince the dogs to get in. All four dogs were curled up together in a pile of fur, flesh and metal that if she hadn't already seen them she'd never be able to tell what the pile was.

She was about to call out to the dogs when someone behind her said, "What's a pretty girl like you doing in a battle ground like this?"

Joy turned to find three men standing behind her, blocking the way out of the ally, "She may be pretty, but she sure is stupid being here," the second said.

"And here I thought today was going to be boring, just collecting alien junk. Looks like we get to have some fun after all," the third said as they started to move closer to her.

"Please don't hurt me," Joy pleaded fearfully.

"You do exactly as we say and you shouldn't get hurt," the first said.

"But I like it better when they fight back," the third said.

"I'll do whatever you want," Joy said walking up to the first man and taking both his hands in hers. Suddenly tightening her grip on his hands she kicked her foot as hard as she could into the center of his chest resulting in a loud cracking of bones, "when hell freezes over," she finished grabbing a metal bar off of the ground and taking up a defensive position.

The man had dropped to the ground clutching his chest and struggling to breathe, his two friends had knelt at his side, but he managed to gasp out, "Get her, make her pay."

Joy took a step back as the two men started to stand up, but they froze suddenly, looks of absolute terror on their faces as the alien dogs appeared on either side of Joy. Joy reached out to pet one of the dogs and smirked at the men, "So, you prefer a fight?" she asked looking at the third man.

In a flash the men tore out of the ally, the injured one struggling a bit, but still managing a good speed considering his broken ribs.

Joy turned to the dogs and started petting all of them, "You're such good dogs," she praised each one, "Now, come with me," she said and motioned trying to get them to follow her, after several minutes of failed attempts to get them to leave the ally she finally got a rope, tied it around one dog's neck and tried to drag it towards the trailer with no luck, it was far to strong, "Great, just great, I get stuck with dogs as big as horses and stubborn as mules."

All of a sudden one of the dogs grabbed her by the arm and dragged her towards the back of the ally towards the remains of the crashed ship. Once it got to the ship it let go then shoved her up onto the ship. She expected to find another dog behind the ship, but gasped in shock when she spotted one of the human like robots, laying unmoving in a pool of light blue fluid. She scrambled down off of the ship, grabbed her backpack then climbed back to the robot and started to look it over. She wasn't even sure how to tell if it was still alive, but the blue fluid seemed to be leaking out of torn tubes in a steady pulsing as if there was a heart or something still circulating it through the body. Both of it's hands had been severed one at the wrist and the other halfway between the wrist and elbow. Joy quickly set to work tying off the torn tubes, reattaching and stitching others that had been torn in other parts of the robots body. Once it seemed she had stopped all the bleeding she got out some more ropes, tied them to the uninjured dogs and managed to get them to drag the robot into the horse trailer without any trouble.

"Well at least now I know why you wouldn't leave the ally before," she said, petting the dogs once more before closing up the trailer.

Joy pulled her truck up to where her father was working, parking so she could unload the scrap from the trailer without him seeing inside of it. She got out and without a word unloaded the scrap onto his truck while working herself up to pull off a good act.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked as Joy shut the back of her truck.

Joy turned to him, tears streaming down her face, "I'm going home," she replied.

"What happened?" he asked concern evident on his face.

"There were three men, they were going to rape me, I fought them off no problem, but I just, I just can't stay here any longer," Joy told him as he pulled her into his arms.

"Are you sure you're okay? Shouldn't we call the police?" Ron asked her.

"I'll call the police on my way out of town, trust me those guys are going to have to show up at a hospital or dead soon. I just need to get out of here."

"Alright, go on. I'm so sorry for making you come here when you didn't want to, I never should have manipulated you like that, or sent you off alone. I love you, I'd never you put you in danger, I'm so sorry," Ron said genuine regret evident in his eyes.

"It's alright dad, I'll see you later," she said before getting into her truck.

Joy let out a sigh of relief as she drove out of the city, she had gotten the aliens safely away from her father and anyone who might want to hurt them. Now she just had to get them home and hope the robot wasn't one of the bad guys, something she was genuinely afraid of considering the dog's eyes were red and she was sure she had heard that the bad robots had red eyes, but the dogs were also part organic so maybe it was different with them.

When Joy got home she couldn't help thinking how lucky she and the aliens that she had found were that she lived on a farm. In the early nineteen hundreds it had been one of the largest farms in the area, luckily several of the large barns were still standing and in good enough condition to hide the aliens in. Her grandmother had been paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident and had begged not to be put in a nursing home. Joy had just been accepted into college at the time, but when her grandmother had said she'd leave the farm, a considerable inheritance that could pay for several degrees at the best colleges and free room, board and being well paid for taking care of her and still no one else in the family had been willing to take care of her, Joy had finally stepped in, unwilling to see her grandmother forgotten in a nursing home. For five years Joy had taken care of her grandmother, until she had died the previous summer, then Joy had finally gotten started on her medical degree.

Joy pulled into the largest barn, one that was nice and open, having been built mainly for storing the tractors and other farm equipment that had been sold off when her grandparents had gotten too old to farm the land themselves and had started renting off the fields to other farmers.

As soon as she opened the back of the trailer the dogs jumped out and started sniffing around the barn, the two injured ones finding an old pile of hay bails to curl up on.

Joy was so distracted watching the dogs that she jumped and took several steps away from the trailer when someone said, "Where are we? Why am I in a box?"

Joy hesitantly stepped closer to the trailer and looked up into glowing green eyes, "You were unconscious, I had to put you in there to get you out of the city, if anyone had found you they probably would have tried to kill you. You're at my farm, about an hour away from Chicago," she explained.

"Why would you help me?" he asked.

Joy shrugged, "You were hurt and needed help, I knew if I didn't help you no one else would, I couldn't just leave you there. It's just in my nature to want to help everyone, at least that's what everyone who knows me says. I patched you up as well as I could, but I don't exactly know much about alien robots so if there's anything else you need you'll have to tell me."

"Where is Lockdown, where's the ship?" he asked as he slid out of the trailer and glanced around the barn.

"The space ship that was over Chicago?" Joy asked and he nodded, "It disappeared, reappeared in China and last I heard it had disappeared again several hours ago. Is Lockdown another robot like you?"

"Yes, he's our leader, captain of the ship, he wouldn't leave without me," he said trying to do something near his shoulder, but after a moment of struggling with his severed limbs he looked at Joy and said, "Open up that compartment there," he said motioning to a small latch on his shoulder as he leaned down so she could reach it.

Joy opened it to reveal a slowly blinking blue light, "What is that?" she asked.

"Tracking beacon, where ever Lockdown is he'll be able to tell I'm alive and come find me. My comlink is damaged so I can't just tell him where I am," he replied.

"Well until then is there anything you need?"

He inspected where she had patched up the stumps of his arms for a moment then said, "Not right away, you're not a bad medic."

Joy couldn't help smiling, "Thank you, I'm currently studying to be a doctor, but I've still got a long ways to go. I'm Joy by the way, what's your name?" she asked.

He said something that sounded foreign and Joy wasn't completely sure she'd be able to pronounce it without some practice, but then he said, "Sunfire, in your language."

Joy smiled, "That will be easier to pronounce. What about the dogs, or whatever they are?" she asked motioning towards the dogs.

"We call them steeljaws, although dogs are the closest thing your planet has to them. This is Nova," he said as one of the dogs walked up to him, followed by the other uninjured one, "and Shadow, the one with the injured leg is Fang and the other is Star, then there's Comet, but I don't see her here," he told her.

"There was another one, but it was dead, looked like it had been run through or shot straight through it's chest," Joy told him while petting Nova.

"It's not surprising, from what I know of your earth dogs the steeljaws are slightly more intelligent, but otherwise the only major difference is they mate for life. Her mate was killed several months ago and she had become reckless in her attacks since then, like she didn't have any desire to preserve her own life. I'm honestly surprised the other four are alive, they had to have fallen from the main ship, they always land on their feet, but I've never seen them fall from that high," Sunfire said.

"That would explain the way Fang's leg was dislocated," Joy said.

"How'd you get them to let you near them or me for that matter? They don't usually like organics, you're lucky you didn't end up in pieces," Sunfire said.

"Star was unconscious when I found her and I started stitching up the cut on her chest. She woke up while I was still stitching her up, but she didn't do anything, then when the others showed up, they seemed to realize I was trying to help," Joy told him.

"They probably did, Lockdown has had to stitch them up so many times I think they realize it's to help them," Sunfire told her.

"So he's captain of the ship and ships medic?" Joy asked.

"No, technically I'm the ships medic although clearly I'm temporarily off duty until I get my hands fixed. Lockdown just won't let anyone else take care of his babies," Sunfire said smiling, then added, "Don't you dare tell him I said that."

"Oh, so he's one of those guys who always have to keep up the tough guy act and refuse to admit they have a soft side too?" Joy asked.

"Pretty much, although it's mostly not an act, he is the most feared bounty hunter in the universe," Sunfire told her.

"Really, what were you guys doing on earth? Hunting down Decepticons?" Joy asked.

Before he could answer they heard a vehicle pulling up the gravel driveway, "Stay here, be quite and try to keep the dogs quite," she said before leaving the barn.

"Tim, what are you doing here?" Joy asked as she watched her younger brother step out of his truck.

"Dad said some guys tried to attack you in the city today and you left in tears. So what really happened?" Tim asked.

"What do you mean, I was attacked," Joy replied.

"What was it, a year and a half ago? You go shopping in the city, two guys, one with a gun and one with a knife try to drag you into an ally and you sent them both to the hospital with multiple broken bones, one with a rib through his lung. You got such an adrenalin rush and enjoyed it so much that when I came to get you from the police station they told me they were afraid you were mentally unstable from being attacked or were going to turn into some type of vigilante going after bad guys because you enjoyed it so much. Plus for weeks you talked about giving up being a doctor to go into law enforcement."

"Today dad said you told him you hurt the guys badly enough they'd have to go to the hospital, but you left in tears. What really happened that you were so proud of yourself a little over a year ago and yet in a similar situation you were in tears this time? Did they hurt you?" Tim asked

"No, they didn't even last long enough for it to be a real fight, one good kick to the ribs and they ran," Joy said holding up her hands, "didn't even last long enough for me bruise or skin up my knuckles."

"Then why were you crying?" Tim asked.

Joy hesitated a moment, then told him, "I couldn't handle all the dead bodies and parts of bodies anymore."

"Dad said he didn't see anyone out there at all," Tim told her.

"Not human, the robots," Joy clarified.

"Joy, you know they're just machines," Tim told her.

"And you know I don't believe that. Have you ever seen one close up? Looked into their eyes?"

"No, but dad has worked with them and he says-"

"He's worked with dead ones, parts of bodies, not the live ones. I've seen them alive, I've looked into their eyes, they are not just machines," Joy told him.

"Alright, maybe you're right, but what dad is collecting isn't alive anymore, it's just dead metal and-"

"Don't," Joy cut him off, "Don't you dare call them that, that's what that jerk dad works for called them, when Optimus and those others broke into the lab."

"How do you even know that?" Tim asked.

"I had surprised dad at his office with a pizza, we were eating in his office when they came and you know dad's office overlooks the research lab that they broke into. The window was broken when the bots first came through and we could hear everything. I swear if I had been one of those bots I would have shot Joyce when he made that comment about dead metal. How would he like it if people started dissecting and studying the bodies of his friends and family who had died, they're just dead meat after all," Joy said angrily.

"Well I guess if anyone ever starts a robot alien rights movement I know who will be leading it," Tim said, "Maybe you're right, maybe not, I don't know, I guess I'll have to meet one that's still functioning before I decide for myself."

"Fair enough, at least it's better than just assuming without having ever seen one alive," Joy said.

"Good, but don't tell dad, lets keep this between us, at family get togethers I'm still going to sit there dumbly nodding and agree with him until I know for myself. I can't take his lectures as well as you do," Tim told her.

"Okay, but only if you don't tell mom I was at the lab when it was attacked, dad and I agreed it would just freak her out even worse than she already was," Joy told him.

"No problem. You really sure you're alright after today?" Tim asked her as he hugged her.

"I'm fine and have a lot of work to do around here," Joy told him.

"Alright, I'll get out of your hair, love you," he said as he got into his truck.

"Love you too," Joy said before he left.

Joy ran into the house for a few minutes and grabbed a bottle of water before heading back to the barn. She hesitated for a moment as she stepped into the yard, the wind had picked up a bit, but felt more like it was blowing straight down and she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something just felt off. She had almost reached the barn when a huge, metal gangplank dropped down into the yard. Joy instinctively ducked behind an old tractor that was parked near the barn then looked up at where the gangplank was coming from.

Through the opening at the top of it she could see inside of what must have been a huge spaceship that based on where the top of the gangplank was had to be hovering barely ten feet above the roof of the barn. Three things then happened all at almost the same time, a bot about the same size as Sunfire appeared slowly moving towards the gangplank and from inside the barn she heard Sunfire yell 'stop, where are you going' and a second later two of the steeljaws darted out of the barn door closely followed by the two injured ones who were still managing to move at a good speed considering their injuries. As soon as they reached the bot they started to rub against his legs and press their heads into his hands and he stopped to pet each one and inspected them for injuries.

Joy couldn't help smiling as she watched him with the dogs, "_Yep, he may be a big tough bounty hunter, but he's totally got a soft spot for those dogs_," she thought as she watched him move down the plank with the dogs still milling around him pressing their heads into his hands as he continued to pet them.

As he got closer to the bottom of the plank Joy realized that what she thought had been strangely shaped armor was actually some type of netting that was tied around his upper body and head which looked as if it had been split in half and the netting was all that was holding him together.

Joy finally stepped out of her hiding place and Lockdown stopped, his hands immediately leaving the steeljaw's heads.

"Where is Sunfire, if you've hurt him I'll kill you," he threatened as one of his hands transformed into a long blade.

Joy took a step back, she wasn't sure if it was the fact that he was threatening her or his intense green eyes locked with hers, but her heart was racing and she couldn't string together a single coherent sentence.

"Should I be offended that you think one puny little human could hurt me?" Sunfire asked as he stepped out of the barn, "She's been helping me, probably saved my life and I'm positive if it weren't for her Star would have bled to death before I regained consciousness."

Lockdown retracted the blade from his arm as he continued to the bottom of the plank, "How did you manage to lose both hands? Lockdown asked turning his attention to Sunfire.

"One got shot off the other got caught under the wreckage when I crashed, it was either sit there and wait for someone to come kill me or pull until the wreckage or my arm gave out. Unfortunately the wreckage won and I passed out, but don't worry, she seems willing to help," Sunfire said motioning to Joy, "She's figured out a lot herself while I was unconscious and the rest, just give her a few basic instructions and she's a pretty decent medic."

"I thought we were finally done having to deal with humans. What about the others, have you been able to contact any of them?" Lockdown asked.

"No, my comlink was damaged, haven't been able to get a hold of anyone. Don't worry, she's nicer than the other humans you were working with," Sunfire assured him, "Anyways, even if we could get a hold of anyone else you'd bleed out before they could get here. I don't know how you're conscious now except that you've always been such a fighter that you won't even let your own body force you into stasis. Get inside the barn and let Joy here get those energon lines tied off before you go offline."

Lockdown looked like he briefly tried to glare at Sunfire, although it was hard to tell for sure with the damage to his face, then he headed into the barn.

Sunfire smiled down at Joy, "One of the benefits of being the ships medic, I'm the only one who can tell him what to do without getting shot for it."

"He doesn't sound too happy about this," Joy pointed out.

"Don't worry, he knows he'll go offline if he doesn't let you help him," Sunfire told her.

"Offline?" Joy asked.

"Die," Sunfire clarified.

"Alright, let's do this then," Joy said before heading into the barn closely followed by Sunfire.

Joy spent the next several hours reattaching or tying off severed energon lines which had gone smoothly. Although she had panicked a little when Lockdown had suddenly slumped forward and his eyes had gone dark, but Sunfire assured her his body had just forced him into recharge and it was nothing she had done.

"It's nearly one in the morning, do you think he's stable enough I could get a little sleep?" Joy asked Sunfire as she checked one more time for any leaking lines.

Sunfire ran a scan on Lockdown then said, "Looks good, the rest can wait until tomorrow."

"Thank goodness," said as she climbed down off of the ladder she'd been using to reach the back of Lockdown's head, "Do you need anything?" Joy asked.

"No, I'm good, and if we're lucky Lockdown will stay in recharge all night, he can be a bit of a pain in the aft when he's injured and not able to get around normally," Sunfire said.

"So sleep as long as I can because once he's awake I won't be getting much rest, right?" Joy asked.

"Exactly."


	2. Chapter 2

"Where is she? We should be out looking for the others not stuck sitting around waiting on a human to repair us. Go tell her to get out here," Joy heard Lockdown saying as she approached the barn.

"From what I've learned about humans they need more recharge than we do, if they don't get enough it can effect their ability to function. Do you really want me to go wake her when she hasn't had enough rest and risk her trying to fix you and ending up making it worse?" Sunfire asked.

"Don't worry about it, I'm already awake," Joy said as she walked into the barn.

"It's about time," Lockdown said.

Joy deliberately ignored him as she kept her attention on Sunfire, "His head and neck are split in half, why can he even still talk?" she asked.

"Luckily his vocal processor wasn't damaged, he may not be able to talk normally, but he can still speak through his comlink system and make that audible. Sort of like one of those cell phones you humans use that can be set so only you can use it or set to a speaker setting," Sunfire explained.

"I'm not so sure his vocal processor not being damaged is really a good thing," Joy said.

"Are you in a hurry to die?" Lockdown ask her.

"Why, are you going to kill me and leave yourself with no one to repair you?" Joy asked.

"I'm stable now, we don't need you, our bodies will eventually repair themselves," Lockdown told her.

"And you'll go crazy waiting to heal, plus if my dad found you out here he'd drag you back to the lab he works at and dissect you," Joy said shuddering slightly, "You wouldn't be the first of your kind he's done that to. The others were already dead, but I'm sure he'd love to get his hands on a living specimen," she said then turned to Sunfire, "So what do I need to do next?"

"We need to start repairing his internal support system, it's basically equivalent to human bones. My tools would be too big for you to safely use, do you have anything to weld with?" Sunfire asked her.

"No, my brother might, but if I ask him, he'll want to know what I want it for," Joy told him.

"Then just go and buy what you need, and do it quickly, being stuck in here is getting annoying," Lockdown said.

"Do you have any idea how much that would cost? Because I'm not sure, but I'd have to guess it'll be pretty expensive," Joy pointed out.

"Sunfire take her to the vault, I believe gold is of value on this planet," Lockdown said.

Joy looked up questioningly at Sunfire, but he just smiled at her and said, "Come on," then led her out of the barn as the ramp into the spaceship appeared.

"This is amazing," Joy said as she followed Sunfire deep into the ship, then gasped and jumped back as some type of strange alien creature lunged at the bars of a cage as she passed it, "What is that?"

"It's going to be the pet of a very rich ruler of a planet a couple galaxies from here," Sunfire told her.

"So you're bounty hunters and pet wranglers?" Joy asked.

"We have our main quarry, but they're getting harder to find so we hunt down other people or in this case animals for whoever is willing to pay well, it keeps the boredom away. Plus nonsentient animals are a lot easier to catch, most of the time," Sunfire explained, "And this is just some of our payments from those jobs," he said as he opened a large door.

Joy stood in a state of shock as she looked around the huge room, piles of various metals were stacked to one end of the room, while shelves along the walls held dozens of gems, most unlike anything she had ever seen before, some fashioned into varying sizes and styles of jewelry. Other shelves and cases were filled with hundreds of different types of weapons and things she couldn't even begin to identify.

Sunfire walked over to one of the shelves and extended a blade from just above where his arm was severed and used it to flip a gold coin the size of Joy's palm off of it so it fell where Joy could catch it, "It's solid gold, think you can get enough money for it to get the welding supplies?" he asked.

"Yeah, probably," Joy replied as she looked at the coin, "It's going to be fun coming up with an explanation for where I got it though."

"Just make something up, knowing how greedy humans are whoever you sell it to won't care where it came from if you don't ask too much for it," Sunfire suggested.

"You're probably right," Joy agreed then noticed another door to one side of the room, "What's through there, more treasure?"

"That's the spark vault," Sunfire replied as he opened the door.

Joy gasped as she stepped into the room and looked around. Shelves containing dozens and dozens of clear boxes lined the walls. Most of the boxes contained glowing blue ball like things that seemed to pulse with energy, "What are those?"

"They're sparks," Sunfire replied.

"Isn't that what you said that glowing thing in Lockdown's chest was?" Joy asked.

"Exactly, they're sort of a combination of a human heart and mind, keeps our bodies functioning and contains a back up memory core. Our minds and memories are stored in our heads like humans, but unlike humans if there's damage to our heads that cause memory loss once the injuries heal the memories can be restored from our sparks," Sunfire explained as he turned and led her out of the room.

"What are those sparks then? Are they from Decepticons?" Joy asked as she followed him.

"Some of them are, others are from Autobots, they're just the ones who ended up so badly injured when Lockdown was hunting them that they couldn't fight back. Technically we're supposed to just destroy them all, but Lockdown says it doesn't feel right destroying a bot who can't fight back. He had me design a spark extractor to remove the spark without killing it, so he just takes their sparks and keeps them here. Don't know what he's going to do with all those sparks, if the creators find out he hasn't been destroying them he'll get himself into a ton of trouble," Sunfire explained as they headed down the gangplank.

"You kill Autobots? I thought they were the good guys," Joy said as they walked back into the barn.

"You can't kill what's not alive. Of course we hunt them, Autobots, Decepticons, they're all glitched and make a mess of everything. They already took over and destroyed one planet, now they're starting in on Earth," Lockdown said.

Joy hesitated a moment trying to process what he had said, "Wait, I thought they were alive. And what do you mean they took over and destroyed a planet? I thought it was their home planet that had been destroyed."

"No, they started glitching, ran off and took over Cybertron and destroyed it," Lockdown told her, "That's why our creators sent me to hunt them down. The creators feel responsible for the destruction that's been caused and want to make it right by destroying all the robots who are glitching."

Joy felt like her head was spinning, she knew beyond a doubt the intelligence, the life she had seen in the Autobot's eyes and yet here was a bot she thought was the same telling her she was wrong, "Your creators? But you're alive, sentient, you-"

"Of course we're not, we are just far more advanced than anything your technology can create," Lockdown told her, his voice taking on a cold tone as he said, "We are nothing more than machines, built to serve our creators, we are equipped with highly advanced artificial intelligence systems that are capable of mimicking many responses that make us appear alive to less advanced species, but we are not alive, we are not sentient, we do not feel emotions, we are just machines and our sole purpose is to serve our creators."

The way he said it made Joy feel sick, it sounded so rehearsed, like he had recited it countless times before and had perfected making it sound as soulless as he was claiming to be. Yet his eyes seemed filled with such pain, sadness and despair that it seemed to counter everything he said.

"I should go get those supplies, may take a while to find a pawn shop to get the cash I'll need," she said then quickly left the barn. She grabbed her purse and keys from the house before leaving as quickly as she could, but still only made it about a mile away before she had to pull over. Her mind was reeling with confusion and questions, how could they not be alive and sentient, she could see it so clearly in the Autobot's eyes as well Sunfire and Lockdown's eyes. Talking to them it never even crossed her mind that they weren't sentient, talking to Sunfire seemed no different than talking to any human, Lockdown seemed a little more reserved and stiff, but she had a great uncle who had been in the military most of his life who showed less emotion than Lockdown did. Maybe it was because she had spent so long arguing with her father that the bots were sentient or maybe it was just that she was too stubborn to believe she had been wrong, but she just couldn't make herself believe that they were just advanced machines.

"I'm back," Joy said as she walked into the barn a few hours later.

"What took you so long?" Lockdown demanded.

"I had to go to a couple pawn shops to find one who would take that alien coin, most of them assumed it wasn't really gold or thought I had stolen it. Then I had to get the welding supplies and have them show me how to use them," Joy explained, "Why, are you angry that I took so long? Impatient to get fixed? Don't like being stuck sitting around bored with nothing to do?"

"Of course I am, now get to work," Lockdown ordered.

While Joy started to set up the supplies she said, "You know anger, impatience and boredom are emotions, how can you feel those things if you're not sentient?"

Lockdown actually looked caught off guard for a moment, but quickly recovered and said, "As I said before, we are equipped with a highly advanced AI system and are programmed to respond to situations as if we were sentient."

"So how do you turn that off? Because it would great if I could change your programming so you're not so impatient and grouchy."

"Only our creators can interfere with our programming," Lockdown said as if she were stupid for not figuring that out on her own.

"So why haven't they made you more polite?" Joy asked, "Have you ever actually seen them alter a bot's personality or the way they respond?"

"No."

"How do you know they can then? What do they do if they don't like the way one of you is acting?" Joy asked.

"They just destroy any who aren't working right."

"So you're these super advanced robots, but instead of trying to fix you if you stop working right they just kill you even though you claim they have the ability to reprogram you?"

"You can't kill something that's not alive, reprogramming is just more trouble than it's worth," Lockdown replied.

"Have you ever seen them building more robots like you?"

"I've never seen them building them, but I've seen them bring new batches in for training," Lockdown told her.

"So they constantly make more?" Joy asked.

"No, they make them in batches and then won't make more for a while."

"When was the last time they made more?" Joy asked.

"Probably about five thousand years ago," Lockdown replied.

"Why haven't they made more?"

"I don't know, it's none of my business what the creators do," Lockdown replied irritably, "Get to work before I decided you're too annoying to allow to live."

"Just one more question. How long ago was it that the Autobots and Decepticons wiped out their populations on the planet they took over? Got it to the point that they were all living in hiding or whatever and there were no more pockets of decent sized populations living in the open?" Joy asked although she already had a pretty good guess what the answer would be.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Lockdown demanded.

"I'm just curious," Joy replied.

"I don't know, probably five thousand years ago. Now get to work," he ordered.

"Alright, alright. Sunfire what do I need to do here?" Joy asked before setting to work.


End file.
